Rennie says every teacher should have a job guarantee

THERE should be a guaranteed job in the classroom for every available teacher as part of plans to help education “bounce back” after the coronavirus pandemic, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has said.

He made the suggestion as he appealed to fed-up SNP supporters to give his party a try in May’s Holyrood election.

Addressing the Scottish Liberal Democrat spring conference, Rennie hit out at Nicola Sturgeon’s party, who he said had “no vision now”.

He said of the SNP:

“It’s all about the factions and the internal fighting.

“It’s the sign of a party that has been in government for 14 years, that has run out of energy and run out of ideas.”

He insisted his party can “make gains in every region” in the Holyrood election, and could stop the SNP getting the majority that is currently predicted by the opinion polls.

With his party’s plans for a more federal United Kingdom, Rennie said the LibDems want “Scotland to have a bigger say in the UK through reform of our country”.

He contrasted this with the SNP’s proposals for another independence referendum.

Rennie said: “The SNP are divided and now they want to divide the country once more.

Independence would be Brexit Mark 2. Years and years of arguments followed by years and years of argumentative negotiations.”

He questioned SNP plans to establish a national care service, saying the party’s “default solution” is to “take all the powers, hoard them in the centre, cut out local communities”. Rennie said to improve the care system “we need to address the fundamentals at the heart of our care service”, adding this means improving funding for the sector.

He called on ministers to “pay staff more because they deserve it”, arguing this would help cut staff turnover, allowing care users to “build relationships and trust with carers”.

With Scotland looking towards its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, Rennie also insisted: “At the heart of the recovery must be education.” But he said it would take “more for education to bounce back” after children have suffered months of disruption to their learning.

Rennie said there needs to be “more in-class support for children who need it” and more resources in every classroom, calling for the Scottish Government’s Pupil Equity Fund to be improved.

He added: “This isn’t about making children sit at desks for longer. It’s about making every hour in school count for more.

“It means getting every trained teacher, and every available pupil support assistant, into classrooms, not on the waiting list for a supply day.

“A guaranteed job for every available teacher to help us cut